Medical News Today

Using tiny gold particles and infrared light, MIT researchers have developed a drug-delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled fashion. Such a system could one day be used to provide more control when battling diseases commonly treated with more than one drug, according to the researchers.

To make it easier for Nebraskans to test their homes for radon, the Radon Program of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is offering low-cost radon test kits. Governor Dave Heineman has proclaimed January to be Radon Action Month. January is an opportune time for Nebraskans to test for radon in their homes, according to Dr. Joann Schaefer, the state's Chief Medical Officer.

Influenza, strep throat and the common cold afflict many people during the winter months, particularly in children and young adults, yet there is one often undiagnosed viral condition that can be far deadlier then these common viruses. Viral myocarditis is a sometimes fatal infection that inflames the myocardium, the thick muscular layer of the heart wall, and is the most common cause of heart failure in otherwise healthy children and young adults.

In recent years HIFU has been widely used for the treatment of solid tumors, such as liver tumor, bone tumor, and breast cancer. The mechanism for therapeutic actions of HIFU includes thermal effects and non-thermal effects with the latter dominated by cavitational effects. Adjusting acoustic parameters of pulsed high intensity focused ultrasound (PHIFU) can control thermal effects and non-thermal effects; short duty cycle and high intensity favors the occurrence of cavitation.

Abstral® is an important new treatment option for inadequately controlled breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) in opioid-tolerant cancer patients. The Abstral formulation delivers the analgesic power of fentanyl in a fast dissolving sublingual tablet. Abstral provides rapid relief of BTcP from 10 minutes1, provides predictable dosing2,3 and is convenient and easy to use.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Vasovist Injection (gadofosveset trisodium), the first contrast imaging agent for use in patients undergoing magnetic resonance angiography, or MRA, a minimally invasive test for examining blood vessels.

Capsule endoscopy (CE), which is virtually a micro-camera, is a revolutionary diagnostic tool in diagnosing small bowel diseases, and CE can obtain 40-60 thousand images of the GI tract, though the number of the images for the lesions is smaller than 500 in most of the patients. The CE reader still has to scan ten thousands of the images one by one because the reader cannot make sure which images the lesions are in. So, it may be a big burden on the CE reader's eyes and energy.

Cell phones have already revolutionized the way people around the world communicate and do business. Thanks to advances being made at UCLA, they are about to do the same thing for medicine. In the lab of UCLA electrical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan, a prototype cell phone has been constructed that is capable of monitoring the condition of HIV and malaria patients, as well as testing water quality in undeveloped areas or disaster sites.

Researchers have developed a new generation of microscopic particles for molecular imaging, constituting one of the first promising nanoparticle platforms that may be readily adapted for tumor targeting and treatment in the clinic.

A Swiss cancer clinic is among the first in the world to use a new, faster radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) to treat a child patient. A 12-year-old girl with Hodgkin's lymphoma was treated using Varian's RapidArc™ technique at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) in Bellinzona.

Bioinformatics researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Genentech have developed a new, quicker way to sequence monoclonal antibodies - a process that is many times faster than the sequencing technology typically used by academic and industry researchers today. The breakthrough is detailed in the December 2008 issue of Nature Biotechnology, in an article titled, "Automated de novo protein sequencing of monoclonal antibodies.

CPC of America, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CPCF.OB), a company focused on the development of therapeutic devices that enhance the quality of patient care in endovascular procedures, announced the addition of three medical and technical advisors to its team. Dr. Olexander Hnojewyj, Dr. James L. Rogers and Richard E.

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics announced 510(k) clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) for its VITROS(R) 3600 Immunodiagnostic System. This new high-capacity immunoassay system provides laboratories with a truly innovative solution to address their quality, labor and cost challenges. The VITROS(R) 3600 delivers high-quality and dependable results by offering a broad and comprehensive immunoassay menu based on world-class VITROS(R) technologies.

Beckman Coulter, Inc. (NYSE: BEC), a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of products that simplify and automate complex biomedical testing, ushers in a new era of cellular analysis with the release of the UniCel(R) DxH 800 Coulter(R) Cellular Analysis System. Capturing 29 individual measurements per cell analyzed, the system provides improved sensitivity and specificity, which means more reliable assessment of abnormal cell populations.

Equivital™, the world's most advanced and effective remote physiological monitoring system, has achieved compliance with the stringent CE medical device standard ISO 13485-2003 in accordance with directive 93/42/EEC.

A prototype of a therapeutic ultrasound device, developed by a Cornell graduate student, fits in the palm of a hand, is battery-powered and packs enough punch to stabilize a gunshot wound or deliver drugs to brain cancer patients. It is wired to a ceramic probe, called a transducer, and it creates sound waves so strong they instantly cause water to bubble, spray and turn into steam. Tinkering in his Olin Hall lab, George K. Lewis, a third-year Ph.D.

Transforming NHS pathology services will improve quality, safety and efficiency in diagnostic tests, according to a two-year review into NHS Pathology Services published recently. The Independent Review of NHS Pathology Services, which was undertaken by Lord Carter of Coles, looked at making services more responsive to patients' needs and highlights the potential for substantial annual savings.

A new type of highly sensitive microscopy developed by researchers at Harvard University could greatly expand the limits of modern biomedical imaging, allowing scientists to track the location of minuscule metabolites and drugs in living cells and tissues without the use of any kind of fluorescent labeling. The technique, based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), works by detecting the vibrations in chemical bonds between atoms.

Among the 75 people Esquire magazine recently chose as the most influential in the 21st century are three researchers in an emerging discipline that combines science and engineering in order to design and build novel biological functions and systems - otherwise known as synthetic biology. The promise of this burgeoning scientific field lies in the potential to apply engineering principles to the fundamental components of biology.